What Games Are You Playing 2013?

[Anthony Edward Stark]

ME3: Citadel was pretty worth it. Besides the sweet adventures in sushi bar shootouts, rumbles in space Chinatown, robbing a casino, and hearing Shep explain the individual meanings of the recycled "END OF CONVERSATION" clips was great. And then after you finish you get handed a Millennial Fair/Gold Saucer area. There's mini games and a combat arena that you can just kind of dick around with for fun. The best part, though, is an NPC who exists to talk about how stupid pubbies in multiplayer are.

[Fenrir]

One thing worth pointing out for the FF5 comments is that while you do get 4x exp on a solo, you don't get 4x ABP (or whatever it's called). Not that it invalidates your general point of course.

I did make sure to get all the good stuff early (Mostly time magic, HP+30% and X-attack, IIRC)

Level is a p.godlike stat in all incarnations of P3 and P4 in general. You only need to be 1 or two levels above to see significant damage reduction. Plus level governs what options you have via fusion. Still, I think this is more telling about how OP. Yattaf is normally since you kinda don't care that the other PCs aren't around.

Also, people get stuck on EMPEROR and EMPRESS? Really? Really? I mean, tables sure. They hurt like fuck if you don't resist their damage, but those two clowns?

Yes. But I think that's mostly people who never switched personas and just decided to ignore Tartarus.

Levels probably do make more of a difference in Persona yeah, but it's not crazy like Tactics Ogre or anything. Equipping a level 10 persona instead of a level 20 one = Taking 2x more damage from the same attack.

I just beat a particularly nasty boss:

- Golden Beetle x3:
They're weak against lightning, but take nearly no damage from it (15-20, they have about 300 HP each?)... or from anything else really.
You're supposed to hit their weaknesses, then do a defense ignoring all-out attack to beat them. Which is impossible in a solo.
So Yattaf has to win a normal slugfest against three tanks that can do allright damage (Around 6HKO, can be more, can be less) and buff themselves to hell.
Three advantages:
- Beetles don't have much agility, so every attack hits
- Yattaf can in one turn use Zio on one beetle, Zio on another, then Mazio on all of them, -then- still have one turn left for another Mazio, healing or Rakukaja. Hitting an enemy multiple times while they're down has a good chance of preventing them from acting the next round.
- Two Zionga and four Mazio rocks in the inventory. I believe they ignore defense since they all do very nice damage to the beetles!
I created a Take-Mikazuchi with Zionga, Mazio, Diarama and Rakukaja; and focused on one beetle (using both Zionga stones) while always keeping Rakukaja up. The battle was easier with only two beetles, but it took a few Chewing Souls for MP restoration.
Level: 25.

Fuck. Andrew's right!

Rule of TAY: Ignore Kain. It helps.

There's more Kain story coming??

I finished Edge's. I loved how Gekkou could get all inspired by the pointless sacrifice of the monks, and permanently die by doing the same thing, not contributing to anything at any point.

[metroid composite]

Heart of the Swarm single-player campaign


Gameplay is generally what you'd expect, except even sillier balance than the campaign for Wings of Liberty.

Some mildly surprising slipups on production values here and there; like talking potraits don't animate or move their mouth.  And the final credits had really low volume on the music.

But nobody really cares about that stuff; just things I would mark as a bug if I were working on the game.  In this post I'm going to be talking mostly about the story.  (Because if you're playing mostly for the gameplay, you were probably playing the multiplayer, not the single player anyway).

And...after a ho-hum Wings of Liberty.......I actually really liked it.  The interplay between Sarah and Jim is actually now among my favourite relationships in a game.  Granted, early in the game I was kind-of inclined to mockery.

[spoilers]like, Sarah hears a news report that Jim Raynor is dead; clearly she has nothing more to live for and should dedicate her entire life to revenge.  Sarah decides that she needs an army to get back at Mensk; where could she recruit followers...?  Hmm...clearly not the people who just rescued her and made her human, and used the word "us" including her.  No, she should actually fight against one of them in an early mission where she's assembling an army.  And oh hey look, Primal Queen Kerrigan is damn near a pallet swap of Queen of Blades Kerrigan.  It's like we're back to 8-bit logic: the pink ones are stronger than the purple ones[/quote]

But there is definitely stuff I like; spoilers in the quotebock since I can't remember how to do a spoiler block apparently

Kerrigan not being evil in the end is a big one; after all the work they had done to set that up, it'd be annoying if they just tossed it away.  Yeah, she's an ends justifies the means kind of girl.  And early in the story it's not clear early on if her past memories or her human compassion will just fade away as she becomes more zerg.  And then there's just so many well-done relationship scenes.  Like...Jim hands Sarah a ghost rifle, she says "it's been a long time", and he says "you'll slip back into it, just like riding a bike."  Then she kisses him, and is like "yep, just like riding a bike."  I love this line because it's so ambiguous.  It could be the innocent "this feels like old times and it's natural" or it could be interpreted as more manipulative, like she's "playing" Jim.  And later on, when she pretty much declares her open love for jim, he doesn't reciprocate, resulting in a very interesting relationship between the two.

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I found its plot to be extremely terrible but I guess you might be okay with it if you never played WC3, because the stuff with the Zerg is a copy paste of the Orc backstory. Kerrigan is likewise a really I likable character whose only motivation is revenge and also a ham-handed love plot. They could have taken the chance to add depth to the character after using her as a pure antagonist since the original Zerg campaign but they fail so thoroughly. Her whole character is just "I must get revenge on Mengak for making me a Zerg by turning back into a Zerg but also I will make myself much stronger with a plot hole plus now I am in love with someone I shared three scenes with before trying to kill." Which isn't really any kind of improvement. Outside of the character arc, the plot arc of the game is a point-for-point rehashing of Thrall's parts in WC3.

I don't know why I'm surprised, though. They had the writer for Jack from ME2 on board, and her character arc was capped off with some awful dialogue and curing severe emotional trauma by fucking her.

Both SC2 games are good exhibits of less being more. Much like Final Fantasy games, when all the dialogue is short and in easily-skipped chunks I can give it more of a pass than if its in a fully-acted cut scene that is supposed to be a REALLY MAJOR THING YOU GUYS.

[metroid composite]

I played a little ways into WC3.  I vaguely remember playing a human arc, an undead arc, and starting a night elf arc, which might have meant that I missed the orc arc?  But yes, it's obvious they reuse storylines between starcraft and warcraft.  Arthas felt a lot like SC1 Kerrigan to me; human hero; becomes the lich king or whatever and starts defiling the land with his creep spread.

But you know what?  I enjoyed the SC1 plot.  And I felt that SC1's plot was a lot better than WoL's plot.  So...if they're copying some old plot threads to get their quality bar back up to 1998 standards, that's ok with me.  (I'd probably still put HotS plot overall below SC1 plot, but there was still enough stuff I liked to keep me satisfied).

[Cotigo]

My takeaway from this: There is no longer a reason to play Path of Exile because Laggy is lost to that game

[Anthony Edward Stark]

I played a little ways into WC3.  I vaguely remember playing a human arc, an undead arc, and starting a night elf arc, which might have meant that I missed the orc arc?  But yes, it's obvious they reuse storylines between starcraft and warcraft.  Arthas felt a lot like SC1 Kerrigan to me; human hero; becomes the lich king or whatever and starts defiling the land with his creep spread.

But you know what?  I enjoyed the SC1 plot.  And I felt that SC1's plot was a lot better than WoL's plot.  So...if they're copying some old plot threads to get their quality bar back up to 1998 standards, that's ok with me.  (I'd probably still put HotS plot overall below SC1 plot, but there was still enough stuff I liked to keep me satisfied).

It's not that SC1 was better. Their dialogue is still really atrocious and the plot is predictable to the extreme. But SC1 lets you ignore more of it AND in 1998 your standards were lower.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Soul Calibur 4 - Still playing around with this. The second-to-last trial in the tower of lost souls is hard, man.

God Hand - Up to chapter 6 now. The game remains a lot of fun even if I can never quite decide the best way to hold the controller while playing.

Dark Souls - Decided to start this because Fenrir. Too early to really say much besides I suck at the game. (I think most people do at first.)

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

God Hand - Up to chapter 6 now. The game remains a lot of fun even if I can never quite decide the best way to hold the controller while playing.

With your feet?

[Sierra]

Sooner or later it's that or your thumbs break off.

EDIT: which reminds I should totally go back to playing that, got distracted by newer and shinier things at the time.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

<Ciddy> Eventually I broke down and played a game where I could have a lobster suplexing demons instead.

[Meeplelard]

FEA: Completed.  Hard Mode Classic, for those wondering.  Since everyone else did it, I might as well post my final team:

Chrom (Great Lord): Pretty much a given.  Married Sumia.  Basically Ike-9 Mk2, which is to say "This is how you do a Marth-style Lord right."

Robin (Grand Master): Male, +Mag, -Luck.   Decent mage who could use some physicals, Married Lissa because that's the closest he's going to get to Chrom who is his secret lover. 

Sumia (Falcon Knight): Had damage issues later in the game, even with Gungnir/Brave Lance + Lanceflaire or whatever, but hey, healing, and paired with Chrom for extra smash or something.

Sully (Paladin): Decent Paladin, not much else to say.  Married Kellam, so I guess someone finally acknowledged he existed? 

Kellam (General): Doesn't take damage, him being paired with Sully was actually a consistent strategy I fell back on when I needed someone safe.

Lon'Qu (Swordmaster): Is a typical Swordmaster though like Sumia, he had some damage issues for a while late game, though unlike Sumia, Swordflaire did actually end up putting him back up due to Crit rates and Astra.  Balmung was a nice defensive back up as well.  Married Olivia because...shut up.

Virion (Bow Knight): Better than I was expecting given early game Male FE Archer, maybe I got a lucky one?  He was lagging for a little mid-game than had a good end game performance.  Mobile, was decent at offense, somehow had RNG in his favor when I needed him to survive a turn because enemies unexpected attacked him, and is absolutely MAGNIFICENT!!!  Married Cordelia.

Maribelle (Valkyrie): Mobile healer who can't take a hit to save her life.  She probably cost me some of my most resets for never just having the raw HP to survive hits and being hit by stray attacks.  That said, her healing was exceedingly useful, hence why I kept her in my party, and her offense as an Assist was passable when she got high enough to use a forged El-Thunder.

Olivia (Dancer): The OTHER person who cost me a lot of resets because there are times I'd use her to dance someone then REINFORCEMENTS LOL YOU LOSE!  She was also the only character to receive any sort of stat up item in the form of a Seraph Robe because it was pissing me off...or did Maribelle get that?  ...or Both?  Whatever, the point is, I didn't use them much!  That said, she's an FE Dancer, and is about what you expect from it, which is to say, a nice utility, and works as a Pair Up just for the speed boost.

Gregor (Bow Knight): For a Mercenary character, he's slow...yet also tanky.  He struggled to double things frequently...though he was still capable of killing or just tanking out areas, and decided to love critical hitting or assist kills with a Killer Bow.  So I guess the proper term would be GREGOR SMASH!!! Also, Gregor is the bravest man alive, as he married Tharja.

Tharja (Sorcerer): "Dark Knights sound awesome! ...wait, why is her Dark Magic fading out? ...oh, only Sorcerer can use it, guess I gotta go that way "  ...and I don't regret it at all.  Tharja got my Silver medal (Chrom getting gold, Lon'Qu got bronze) and wasn't surprised, given how often I'd fall back on her just tanking out entire scenarios with Nosferatu.  Gregor as her consistent pair up gave her just enough speed to double most things, and late game, she had Tomebreaker so Mages just couldn't' touch her at all.  Actually, she was my main way of dealing with both Validar and Aversa (also used Robin w/ Superior Jolt against Validar.)  Best part was that she actually had a defense score, so didn't die to a sneeze, so Nosferatu strategy could actually work!

Cherche (Wyvern Lord): I probably should have made her a Griffon Knight as I had more faith in her speed than I should have, because she couldn't double much, though a few maps I did pair her with Sumia and such and she was good there.  In any event, I was a little underwhelmed; she's tanky, but the bow weakness is ever present, doesn't deal with magic well, isn't as evasive as I'd like, etc.  She's no Miredy or Jill when it comes to Unpromoted Female Wyverns in the series, which just makes the disappointment grow!  She was good come endgame at least, and it looks like Gerome would end up being rather powerful if caught up but whatever.  Oh yeah, she married Henry...because Henry is awesome and I should have used him in my final team!  yes, there should be a pun there, but I'm at a loss.  Also was my main Axe user, especially after I dropped Vaike, so there's that.

Lucina (Great Lord): I didn't think I was going to bother with her due to Nino-syndrome until I saw how high her stats were for her level, combined with Parallel Falchion and all that, and went "Ok, let's try her out for a map"; by the end of the first Map (the Ship), she had gained 5 levels and was already starting to compete with Promoted Units.  She's an absolute monster, and was pretty much the one character I didn't Pair Up when I had an Odd Number of units, because her stats were damn good overall and I was never worried about her dying (especially because Aether adds to her durability.)  Unbreakable Silver Sword that is infinite Concoctions and murders Wyverns doesn't hurt either, of course.  Promoted, I actually nerfed her with a forged Bronze Lance and she was still killing things (why?  Not to make her worse, but because I wanted that D in Lances so she could use Javelins, for obvious reasons, and didn't feel like usnig an Arm's Scroll.)

Tiki (Manakete): I was using Nowi for a while, but when she hit level 20, I saw her stats (most notably her speed) and doubled checked her growths, I realized there's no way Nowi was going to be worth anything long term; at least Manaketes have strong Pair Up bonuses.  Tiki, on the otherhand?  I wish I didn't get her as late as I did, kicking myself for holding off on that paralogue.  She's what I expect out of a Manakete, in terms of stats, durability, etc.  She's fairly tanky, decent offense (even 1-2 Range in this game!), and on top of that, SHE HAS ACTUAL SPEED.  Even with just a Dragon Stone, she absolutely crushes Nowi w/ a DragonStone+ on stats.   Makes sense granted, as Tiki was a decent unit in FE12, so now that she's finally matured 1000 years later, you'd think she'd retain decency...or something...

Flavia (Hero): I wasn't going to use her beyond the chapter she joins but then the last few maps increase the party size, so I needed a competent character for that slot.  It feels like the game hands the two PCs in Chap 23 to you for that reason: adequate PCs out of the gate who can fill in those empty slots.  She didn't actually see much use though; mostly was paired up with Virion and gave him extra bonuses while sometimes occasionally doing competent damage as an assist, but really, that's all I ask for with a unit like that.


I used a number of other PCs on reserves for worthless randoms, or in cases of "Damn it, I need a Thief!", Anna would be subbed in for someone of the above, and it's probably the FE game I used the most characters in, excluding FE10 due to it's nature, and FE2 and FE4 where "You can use everyone, SO USE EVERYONE DAMN IT!"


Overall thoughts on the game?

"Finally, a worthy follow up to Radiant Dawn!"

It's not a better game than Radiant Dawn, but it at least shows an attempt at legitimately trying to be an equal game.  The game is basically what happens when you take FE8 (which was already a remake of FE2 in disguise when you think about it...) and FE4, put them in a blender and this is what you get!  Ok, and instead of a generation time jump system, they go with the DBZ Android Saga plot of "Child of character from the Future comes to warn about the EVIL FUTURE that must be averted!"  spliced with a little bit of "Robin is totally FF7 Cloud" except the identity crisis here is more just straight forward amnesia rather than "I THINK I'M SOMEONE ELSE!"  Despite all this, the game ends up being pretty stock for FE plot:

Evil Country is bad, beat evil country before it takes over your country!  It does that plot twice actually, just ups the stakes the 2nd time, THEN decides "Validar is Nergal, he's trying to DESTROY THE WORLD WITH EVIL DRAGONS because evil"  because we need an epic final boss fight with a dark madman, not some guy trying to be Ashnard WITH PURE IDEALS!!!

...actually, when you think about it, the game is a combination of every FE game out there in some way, which makes sense that the DLC and Spotpasses is basically them throwing their arms up and going "Ok, screw it, THIS GAME IS FIRE EMBLEM ALL-STARS IN DISGUISE!"  I'm ok with this, and probably will take advantage of that on a replay, where I intend to use more children, as well as some of the DLC Characters (Dark Knight Micaiah seems really damn fun on paper), and possibly playing around with a Second Seal because I didn't do that much.


I'm thinking the game is an 8/10 right now.  Doubt it'll go below that, question of do I think it deserves more or not...but for now, yeah, 8/10 works.  Not quite Radiant Dawn level, but probably around Path of Radiance?  Yeah, let's go with that.

[Fudozukushi]

Dark Souls - Decided to start this because Fenrir. Too early to really say much besides I suck at the game. (I think most people do at first.)

The most important thing is to keep track of your deaths.  Death counters are the best part.

[Dark Holy Elf]

You mean the game doesn't for you? Disappointing.

Have I mentioned God Hand is awesome?

[Fenrir]

Prepare to die.. probably less than in God Hand?
Which class did you pick?



P3 Yattaf solo:
This is so much better than a normal playthrough.


- Intrepid Knight:
Solid durability, pierce skills, 3HKO wind damage and a rare Hama sometimes once or twice.
Yattaf made a Yamatano-orichi with Auto-Tarukaja and Auto-Rakukaja. She uses it then switches immediately to good old reliable Take-Mikazuchi. Once the auto skills wear off, the boss has already lost half his HPs. This would have been worse if the AI decided to spam Hama instead. (Expel immune personas aren't exactly incredible right now)
Level: 27

- Hierophant:
Lightning magics, strike attacks, Sukunda, Dekaja, and a fear inflicting attack. Relatively low stats. He looks easy but took me three tries.
The biggest issue is somehow Sukunda. It raises critical rate to the point where Hierophant can kill Yattaf in one round if he gets lucky. Fear can contribute to Hierophant's annoying H4X game.
-> Lightning immune Take Mikazuchi to kick his ass with Getsu-Rei (a physical skills that does more damage on full moons), switching to Sati to use Rakukaja if he drops a Sukunda. Staying above 200 HPs (out of ~250) at all times + A few Patra Gems to dispel fear are a necessity.
Level: 28

- Lovers:
Charm is a bitch, but damage isn't high - And Yattaf is immune to most of it with Sati. Using Medical Powders to heal is better than using a Persona with Diarama, or there's a risk of charmed Yattaf using Diarama on the boss.
Level: 28

- Furious Gigas x3:
They can use Power Charge to do 2HKO damage, and are weak against Wind but wind somehow does nearly no damage. (Ice and physical attacks do)
Gigases have way too much damage, Yattaf can't even handle two of them in a straight slugfest.
The solution is to equip a persona with Auto Raku/Tarukaja (King Frost) and to blitz them. Yattaf used her wind attack items (2 Garula + 2 Magaru gems) to keep them down and switched to Oumitsunu to get strike resistance and spam the very damaging Gale Slash attack. When Auto Raku/Tarukaja wore off, only one Gigas was left.
Level: 31

- Fanatic Tower:
Pretty much does nothing but cast lightning spells all day long. These spells don't even do as much damage as a single Furious Gigas attack.
Hahahah
Level: 32

[Grefter]

More Fenrir making me feel bad for going lolfuckthisgameplay and playing P3 on ez modo for shits and giggles when I did it.

Y u gotta do me that way bro?

[Tide]

Prepare to die.. probably less than in God Hand?
Which class did you pick?



P3 Yattaf solo:
This is so much better than a normal playthrough.


- Intrepid Knight:
Solid durability, pierce skills, 3HKO wind damage and a rare Hama sometimes once or twice.
Yattaf made a Yamatano-orichi with Auto-Tarukaja and Auto-Rakukaja. She uses it then switches immediately to good old reliable Take-Mikazuchi. Once the auto skills wear off, the boss has already lost half his HPs. This would have been worse if the AI decided to spam Hama instead. (Expel immune personas aren't exactly incredible right now)
Level: 27

- Hierophant:
Lightning magics, strike attacks, Sukunda, Dekaja, and a fear inflicting attack. Relatively low stats. He looks easy but took me three tries.
The biggest issue is somehow Sukunda. It raises critical rate to the point where Hierophant can kill Yattaf in one round if he gets lucky. Fear can contribute to Hierophant's annoying H4X game.
-> Lightning immune Take Mikazuchi to kick his ass with Getsu-Rei (a physical skills that does more damage on full moons), switching to Sati to use Rakukaja if he drops a Sukunda. Staying above 200 HPs (out of ~250) at all times + A few Patra Gems to dispel fear are a necessity.
Level: 28

- Lovers:
Charm is a bitch, but damage isn't high - And Yattaf is immune to most of it with Sati. Using Medical Powders to heal is better than using a Persona with Diarama, or there's a risk of charmed Yattaf using Diarama on the boss.
Level: 28

- Furious Gigas x3:
They can use Power Charge to do 2HKO damage, and are weak against Wind but wind somehow does nearly no damage. (Ice and physical attacks do)
Gigas have way too much damage, Yattaf can't even handle two of them in a straight slugfest.
The solution is to equip a persona with Auto Raku/Tarukaja (King Frost) and to blitz them. Yattaf used her wind attack items (2 Garula + 2 Magaru gems) to keep them down and switched to Oumitsunu to get slash resistance and spam the very damaging Gale Slash attack. When Auto Raku/Tarukaja wore off, only one Gigas was left.
Level: 31

- Fanatic Tower:
Pretty much does nothing but cast lightning spells all day long. These spells don't even do as much damage as a single Furious Gigas attack.
Hahahah
Level: 32

Reading about this playthrough pretty much makes my morning btw. Don't think I mentioned that yet.

[Fenrir]

Thanks Tide.
... I should note that I still don't know how to use skill cards. I bought a ton of them from Tanaka and I do nothing with them.
(I'd probably waste them all anyway. I don't stay with persona for long)

It's okay Gref. I'm still the guy who struggled against Jecht.

[Grefter]

You only struggle against Jecht because you play games the way you do.

I... forget how to use the cards.  I recall it being fairly easy though since I got liberal use out of a Growth 3 one I picked up.  Is it the gem store in the mall?  Or is that just jamming a Persona into a weapon.

[Nitori]

I thought you use them at the shrine or something

[Lord Ephraim]

Heart of the Swarm Campaign finished.  First time on Brutal.  Overall difficulty felt like Wings of Liberty on Hard, but HotS gives tons of crazy overpowered zerg units to play with. 

The story is trash.  Everything in Wings of Liberty might as well never happened.  The new Zerg characters didn't make up for the removal of WoL's best characters (Tychus and DONNY VERMILLION).

The good news is that Bomberbot still lives and still remains the best reason to own SC2. At least until they finish ZERG HUNTER RPG, that is.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Soul Calibur 4 - Beat the Tower of Lost Souls. Ended up needing to make three pretty good characters and the last two challenges were still pretty rough. Surprisingly fun actually, my expectations were very low though. Much better than other one-player figher modes I've played, not that there are that many of those.

[Fenrir]

FF4 TAY:

Only Fu So Ya is left.
For the final team I'm torn between:
- Efficiency: Kain / Edward / Yang / Edge / Ursula
- Edward's angels: Edward/Ursula/Harvey/Palom/Izayoi
- UOM: Yang/Gekkou/Zangetsu/Cid/Edward
... Crap. I really want to use Porom and he's in none of these teams??



P3 Yattaf solo:
I have 500 000 yen hahahah.
(Oh right, that's like only 5000 euros)

Post september school music = The Vita needs a mute button


- Justice and Chariot
The big gimmick of the fight is that the bosses keep separating and uniting (sharing Hps by uniting) If one separated boss dies, the other resurrects him with full HPs, so they need to be killed in the same round. If the united form dies, it seems to use H4X to try and kill you (as I discovered much to my chagrin)
Their damage is alright but they prefer to waste a ton of turns using bad status (POIZN and silence) and separating/uniting instead. Unfortunately, Justice has Hama (ID) and Yattaf's only hama immune persona was a level 25 Justice.
After losing once I went with Virtue instead. Remove the auto counter accessory just in case and get the +20%HP one instead. Get good old Take-Mikazuchi when they're united to spam Gentsu-Rei and heal with Diarama. Stay with Virtue instead when they're separated, doing damage with Magaru and healing with items. (100 HP healing items are starting to become godawful, but there's nothing better) Finish them off with Magaru.
Level: 34

- Magical Magus x3
They're weak against fire. I'm not sure about their skills (mostly ice spells and magic repel, apparently), but they're sure weak against fire.
Start with sexy Incubus with Auto Tarukaja and Auto Rakukaja. Agilao on two maguses, Maragilao on all of them, switch to FLAUROS, Megido
The next turns, liberal use of Agilao and Megido.
Dead in three turns.
BTW Yattaf fought these guys wearing nothing but a swimsuit
Level: 37

- Natural Dancer
Aaaaargh
3HKO Wind skills + Hamaon (moderately accurate ID) + Tetrakarn (Reflects the next physical) + Sexy Dance (Charm) + Lots of durability. No weaknesses, resists fire/wind/lightning.
At this point Yattaf has 3 homonculuses (resurrects the MC after he's hit with ID) but I'd rather not waste them like they're nothing.
First off, Yattaf finally uses her first heart item by equipping the Narcissus Flower (Prevents charm) and never ever considering removing it.
 
She could have tried making the ultimate persona for that fight: Diarama, Expel immunity, an ice attack, and maybe wind resistance. Transfering the perfect skills takes too much time though, and the only useful skill card I had for that fight was a low level Bufu, which was definitely not enough.

Instead she used a Virtue with expel immunity and Diarama + A Cu Chulainn with Torrent Shot (good physical damage). Fuck ice spells, Torrent Shot is so much better. Tetrakarn is a major problem there, but it's easy to get around it: Equip a crappy naginata and do a normal physical attack everytime the boss uses it.
So, Cu Chulainn for Torrent Shot, Virtue for healing. Yattaf was vulnerable to Hamaon with Cu Chulainn equipped, but I spent most of the battle with Virtue and was willing to lose one homonculus.
Level: 40

[Luther Lansfeld]

If you use Kain and Edge and Edward you should probably be sent directly to bad character hell.

[Fenrir]

Unless the rest of TAY ruins him, Edward is great. I always sympathized with him and like the idea of a joke character who can somehow still be really useful sometimes. I'd totally go with an Edward/Edward/Edward/Edward/Edward party.
My favourite TAY scene so far is where Edward sets his castle on fire to stop Kain. Then Kain just walks up to Edward to impale him. The end.